An Uncertain Thing
by Here But Not For Long
Summary: When Tali gets sick during a day in kindergarten, the whole MCRT has to juggle solving a homicide with keeping a curious 5-year-old from getting underfoot...


A/N: Sorry for my long hiatus, guys! I had major facial surgery done and with that on top of the holiday season, I've been too busy (and sleeping too much!) to get much writing done. This one-shot is set later in the universe of _We Are an Ocean_, chronologically somewhere around NCIS season 16. I'll get back to WAAO soon, I promise!

* * *

"Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry." -Democritus

* * *

"This doughnut is for me, and this one is for you, Daddy," Tali says proudly as she presents Tony with the prize she's holding in her hands. It looks plain enough to Tony, but he knows Tali picked it out with great care from a box of identical doughnuts. He never would have thought a plain doughnut from a box of plain doughnuts could mean so much to him, but he's thrilled to accept it from his tiniest girl.

"Thanks, baby," he says affectionately. He holds the pastry back toward her and says "_l'chaim_!"

"_L'chaim_!" Tali agrees, bumping his doughnut with her own and giving him a gap-toothed grin. She looks so much like Ziva sometimes, and that grin gets him every time.

He kisses her on the forehead and takes a bite out of the snack in his hand. His daughter settles onto his lap and takes a bite of her own, launching off into a story he can barely follow about the boy that sits across from her; she's talking with her mouth full and it shouldn't be endearing but somehow, everything she does is cute. Tony eyes the boy in question and thinks critically about how messily the kid is eating, as if his own daughter isn't dropping crumbs all over the floor. Tali, of course, can do no wrong.

He's taken the morning off work today to attend Doughnuts with Dads at her kindergarten; he requested the two hours off several weeks ago and Gibbs approved it without comment, but Tony knows he would have had to back out if they had an active case this morning. He's doubly glad, then, to be here enjoying this. There's no telling whether or not he'll get to attend the next one.

He hands his phone over to another dad and asks him to take a picture of Tony and Tali together. This he sends to both Ziva and Gibbs. He knows Gibbs won't acknowledge it, but he knows he'll appreciate it all the same. Tali's parents' love for the girl is nothing on her adoptive grandfather's gruff adoration.

At the end of the event, Tony helps Tali wipe her face and prepares to say goodbye. "Remember, you're going to ASP after school today," he tells her.

"Yep," she agrees. "Miss Maggie is gonna let us have movie day today, since it's raining!"

"Glad to hear it, sweetheart," he replies fondly, reaching up to brush her wild hair out of her eyes. It's then that he sees her expression change-he knows that look and, knowing what's coming, he gets out of the way just in time.

Vomit splatters to the floor in between them, and as soon as the danger's passed, he's pulling her away from it, tutting. "Oh, no. I'm sorry you're not feeling well, darlin'." He snags a napkin from a nearby table and wipes her mouth with it, his heart breaking as he sees her lower lip starting to tremble.

"I'm sorry, Daddy, I forgetted to run to the trash can!"

"Nothing to be sorry for," he assures her. The glower he's getting from her teacher tells a different story, but that's their problem, not Tali's. "It'll get cleaned up. Come sit down, baby. You can't stay at school like this and I have to go to work, so let's see what your sitter is up to today, okay?"

Tali lets him lead her to a beanbag in the classroom's reading corner and he pulls his phone back out, wondering several feet away. Scrolling to the babysitter's contact, he crosses his fingers that she'll be able to take Tali last minute. "Hey, Katie?" he starts when she answers.

"Hi, Mr. DiNozzo. What's up?" Wherever she is on the other end of the line, there's a lot of noise, and Tony has a sinking feeling that tells him the college student isn't home and available today.

"Tali's sick and I can't leave her at school. Any chance you can take her today?"

"Ah, no, I can't. Sorry to hear she's not feeling well, but I'm actually at the airport on my way to Florida for spring break."

Tony winces, though he'd expected as much, and he suddenly feels very old upon the discovery that this is what spring break means to him now. "Okay, thanks. Have a good trip and be safe, Katie." Saying that makes him feel even more ancient, and he winces again.

Katie chuckles, able to hear it somehow in his voice. "I will. Good luck, Mr. DiNozzo. Tell Tali I said to feel better soon."

She hangs up and he scrolls to find the backup sitter's contact. Their grandmotherly neighbor Esmerelda is still a good option, and Tony calls her hopefully. Unfortunately, it goes to voicemail, though, and trying one more time gets the same result.

Time to call the _emergency_ sitter. It's a middle-aged woman in their neighborhood who Tali isn't overly fond of—Tony hates to send her there when she's already not feeling well, but he's got to do something with her and get to work soon. The line rings several times and just when he thinks she isn't going to answer, the line picks up. "Good afternoon, Tony. What can I do for you?"

He knows as soon as he hears Karen's voice that this isn't going to work, either. She sounds very stuffed up and she can't very well care for a sick 5-year-old if she's ill herself. "Hi, Karen. Tali's sick today and I was hoping you could take her last-minute, but you don't sound like you feel great yourself."

"You've got that right. I've got the—" she pauses to sneeze away from the phone, and Tony flinches at the sound— "the flu. Whatever Tali's got, this is probably worse and you don't want her getting it."

"You're probably right," Tony says with a sigh. Feeling rather unforgiving at the whole situation, he has to remind himself that this isn't Karen's fault. "Feel better soon," he says, trying to be charitable.

"Thanks. Hope Tali feels better, too." She hangs up and Tony's just as stuck as he was when he started.

He makes his way back over to where Tali's sitting, looking miserable. As much as he knows he's in trouble here, the news he has to share will undoubtedly cheer his daughter up, and that's something, at least. "Hey, Tali girl," he says, giving her a smile and sinking down on a neighboring beanbag chair. "How would you like to go see Mama at work?"

"I get to go to NCIS!?" Her eyes absolutely light up and she leaps at him in a flying hug. "Thank you, thank you, thanks, Daddy!"

Tony laughs and hugs her up. "You're easy to please. You ready to go?"

"Yes!" She climbs off of him just as swiftly as she jumped on and she pulls on her backpack, beaming. "Let's go!" NCIS is just about her favorite place in the world—she really is her parents' child.

"Hold your horses. We've still got to get you checked out. We have to do that every time you leave school early, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Mrs. Hearn, I'm leaving with my dad!" she yells across the classroom.

Tony chuckles again. "That doesn't quite cut it. Why don't you wait by the door while I talk to your teacher?"

"Okay!" She skips off to do as he asked her to do, having obviously forgotten the fact that she threw up all of five minutes ago.

Shaking his head, Tony approaches Mrs. Hearn, turning on the charm. He gives her the endearing grin that works on every woman but his wife. "So sorry for the mess," he tells her in a soft, flirty tone. "Tali needs to work on her aim."

Her annoyed expression melts. _I've still got it_, Tony thinks smugly. "It's alright. Kids can't choose when they get sick, and it looked like it came on pretty suddenly. Just take her home and get her feeling better, okay?"

"Your wish is my command." He winks and she giggles. Ziva would roll her eyes so hard if she was here… She's never tried to stop her husband's harmless and constant flirtations with other women, but she never stops being dumbfounded when those women fall for it. She's not above flirting with people to get what she wants either, though—Tony is always exceedingly proud of her when she gets something out of a male suspect just by looking at him the right way and speaking in the right tone. He'd be lying if he said he doesn't sometimes fall for it himself, finding himself agreeing to things he doesn't mean to agree to. He just can't say no to Ziva, not when she has such useful tools at her disposal as provocative slouching.

Tali's teacher seems to feel much the same way about Tony's flirting, because she even gives him and Tali a smile as they leave. It's a big step from the glare she gave them when the little one threw up on the carpet!

He officially checks Tali out at the front office on the way out of the school and then he and Tali head to the car, hand in hand. She seems to be feeling better for now, and though he's frustrated by the chaos one little expulsion of vomit can cause to the structure of his family's day, he's glad that she's at least not miserable and may even get to enjoy her morning at NCIS.

When they get there and Tony pulls her out of the car, he kneels down in front of her to get on her level and talk to her seriously. "Now, Special Agent Tals, you have a very important mission when we go inside, okay? Do you think you're up for that?"

Clearly anticipating a game, she grins widely at her father. "Yeah! What is it?"

"Well, you know how Gibbs is really serious about work?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, he might not be as happy to see you as he usually is because kids aren't usually allowed to hang out at NCIS."

"Really?" Her face falls a little. "But I thought he was _always _happy to see me!"

"He'll be happy to see _you_, baby girl," he hastens to explain, "but he might not be so excited that you're here today. He'd rather see you at home." The last thing he wants is to accidentally drive a wedge between his daughter and his boss by letting their girl think Gibbs is mad at her and not him.

"Okay. So what's my mission, Daddy?"

"I think he'll be mad at me if I bring you in when you're supposed to be at school, but he won't be mad at you. Who could be mad at that cute little face?" He reaches out to tickle her sides lightly, making her giggle and squirm. "Your mission is to tell him you're here. That's all, super easy. This mission won't be a match at all for my little ninja, right?"

"Right!" She's excited all over again. "I can do it!"

"That's my girl!" He gives her a high five and drops a kiss to her hair before taking her hand and leading her inside.

She's a popular person around here. Everyone they pass wants to say hi to her and they all know her by name. The security guard who pins her NCIS visitor's badge to her shirt even has a "secret" handshake with her, making Tony grin. He loves how universally adored their girl is, because while _he _of course thinks the world of her, everyone else simply treasures her for her sweet, fiery personality. He's so proud of her and the way she uses her bubbly cheerfulness to make friends everywhere she goes.

When they get to the bullpen, Tony hangs back a little, letting Tali do her thing without any interference from him.

Her mind on her serious mission, Tali makes sure her posture is very good as she walks to Gibbs' desk. He sees her coming and raises his eyebrows, rising to his feet to greet her from behind his desk. "Special Agent David-DiNozzo, didn't know you were coming in today." He reaches over the desk to shake her hand. She has to fight off a big, cheesy grin because she's a Special Agent today and Special Agents have to be very composed.

She shakes his hand once, the hard way she's seen Daddy to do with other men. "I got sick at school, so Agent Daddy sent me on a mission to NCIS," she shares, hands falling to her hips in her most grownup pose.

"Is that so?" Gibbs looks around suspiciously but his senior agent is nowhere to be found. "Well, always pleased to have you on board. You're an asset to my team."

"Asset is a bad word, Papa Boss," Tali tells him sternly.

That pulls a real laugh out of him, something only Tali and Abby can do with such ease. "_Ass_ is a bad word, Tali. Asset isn't."

Tali gasps. "Whichever one's the bad word, you just said it!" She's scandalized.

"That's the thing about being an adult," he informs her, smiling. "You can say bad words if you want to."

"I don't think all adults can do that," she contradicts. "Daddy gets in trouble when _Ima_ hears him say one."

He goes around the desk to pull her into a bear hug—his bear hugs are Tali's favorite things about him. "I think I would be in trouble with your _Ima_ if she heard that just now, too."

"That's okay. I do good at secrets."

"I'm sure you do, Tals." He goes back to sit in his chair again, and Tali folds her arms on his desk and lays her chin on them, watching him. "Anyway, speaking of adults who are in trouble, where's your dad?"

"I think he's prob'ly hiding," she confesses, and he smiles a little at that.

"I am not hiding!" her dad calls behind her; he's settled in behind his own desk while they were talking.

"Are you sure? Because Papa Boss says you're in trouble."

Tony sighs and Gibbs-slaps the back of his own head. "Better, boss?"

"No. You're still late."

"Hey, it's not my fault. Take it up with my superior." He points to Tali, who gives Gibbs her most charming smile, a talent she certainly picked up from both her parents.

"Is he excused, Tals?"

"I guess so. He helped me wipe my face when I throwed up."

"_Threw _up, Tali," Tony corrects.

"He helped me wipe my face when I threw up," Tali tries again. "So I think he's okay this time. That was nice of him to do."

"You're in luck," Gibbs tells Tony. "Your superior is feeling gracious today. She can't get you off the hook if you don't start working now, though. We've got a case."

Tony sighs and stands immediately, beckoning his daughter over to his desk. "Come sit over here at Daddy's desk, baby. Papa Boss and I need to do some adult working stuff, okay?" He pulls his chair out and plops her into it before pulling a coloring book and crayons out of his Tali-dedicated desk drawer. "Your new mission is to make some really nice art for Mama."

"Sir, yes, sir!" she cries happily, already reaching for the coloring utensils. Once he's sure she's really occupied, he leaves her to it and goes to Gibbs' desk to be caught up on the case. Gibbs pulls up crime scene photos from this morning after making sure the screen is pointed away from Tali's line of sight—they've got a dead petty officer.

"Surprised you didn't call me in, boss," Tony says in a low voice, not wanting Tali to overhear.

"Got by without you, DiNozzo. Tali needed her dad to be there this morning. Did Senior make it to _your_ school events?"

"Of course he didn't."

"And you remembered that. It may not be the first thing he missed and it may not be the biggest one, but kids notice. Tali would've been hurt."

Touched, Tony nods. "Thanks, boss. And—I… thanks again. Tried to get ahold of her sitters and they're all unavailable."

Gibbs gruffly returns the conversation to the open case at hand, but Tony knows he understands Tony's gratitude and it isn't unnoticed.

A few minutes later, McGee and Ziva return from the crime scene; they'd stayed behind to finish up while Gibbs returned to NCIS. At first, they can't see Tali—she's too short to be seen past Tony's computer. She hears them come in, though, and is overjoyed to see her mother. "_Ima_!" she cries.

"Tali?" Ziva peers around the computer on Tony's desk to see her small daughter sitting in her husband's desk chair and beaming. "What are you doing here? Why are you not at school?"

"Somebody threw up her doughnut," Tony shares grimly, emerging from behind Gibbs' desk.

"Oh, _ahava shelli_, I am sorry." Ziva drops into a crouch and beckons her daughter forward so she can feel Tali's forehead. "I believe you may have a minor fever." She looks up at Tony. "Why is she _here_, though?"

"Katie's out of town, Esmerelda's not answering her phone, and Karen has the flu."

Ziva frowns, clearly working through the same thing Tony did an hour ago. They usually rely on school and the After School Program to watch Tali while they're both working, and for late nights and early mornings, their sitters are their other line of defense. Tali's illness makes the first line unworkable and all of the sitters are unavailable. "That is quite a cucumber," Ziva says softly. "No matter, we will figure it out."

"Pickle," Tony corrects. "And I think we _have _figured it out. There's not much help for it—Tali's going to play _Spy Kids_ for the day."

"We're going to watch _Spy Kids_?" Tali asks gleefully. Like her father, she's very into (age-appropriate) movies.

Tony chuckles. "I doubt they have that up in MTAC, my love. I meant _you _are going to be the spy kid today."

"No, I'm going to be the Special Agent kid today!"

Ziva is clearly unconvinced. "Perhaps I need to take a sick day myself and go home with her."

"I don't want to go home!" Tali whines.

"I need you here, Ziver," Gibbs argues quietly.

Tony tries to reason with his wife. "Look, she'll be fine. If one of us needs to be sent somewhere, we'll just make sure the other can do desk work here and stay with Tali. You know there's nowhere she'd rather be." That much, at least, is clearly true.

"Okay," Ziva finally agrees, though she doesn't look happy about it. "But she is not to see any crime scene photos, understood?"

They generally avoid PDA at work, but Tony has to break that unspoken rule; he takes her hand and squeezes it. He does it because he knows what Ziva is afraid of here. Her own father brought her into the Mossad fold way too young and it destroyed her childhood. She would fight a thousand men—and she would win—before she let her daughter's innocence be lost. "Of course she won't." He meets her eye and they have the kind of silent communication that comes from being long-term partners. _She'll be fine_, he's saying. _I'll make sure of it. You are not your father and Tali's childhood is going to stay innocent and happy. _Ziva finally fully concedes at that, grateful for her husband's silent support.

They work through much of the morning without much change in the normal routine. Tali bounces between desks, favoring her mother's and Gibbs' as she colors, chats, and daydreams her time away. They work around her and besides the prohibition on crime scene photos, it isn't much different from working without a 5-year-old in their midst.

She starts yawning around noon, though, and two needs make themselves clear: she needs to be fed lunch, and she needs to be put down for a nap. Lunch, at least, is easy enough. Though she usually eats the school-provided meal in her school cafeteria and thus doesn't have a packed lunch with her, Tony's lunch is relatively child-and-stomach-bug friendly and he's happy to sacrifice it. It's a sandwich, a bag of pretzels, and a bag of carrot sticks, all things Tali eats with little difficulty.

Tim brought his lunch, too, and he's struck by sudden inspiration. He spreads his jacket on the floor and sits down on it, making an obvious show of arranging his food next to him. "Uncle Geek, what are you doing?" Tali asks curiously.

"Oh, Tali, there you are!" Tim replies as if he's just noticed her. "I'm having a picnic, as a matter of fact. Would you care to join me, my lady?"

Tali is completely in love with McGee, much to Tony's (feigned) horror, and she's pleased as punch to be invited on an impromptu picnic with him. "I _love _picnics!" she exclaims joyfully, plopping herself down next to him. "Daddy, can you bring me my food?"

"Of course I can, Special Agent David-DiNozzo. Your wish is my command." He says it with considerably more sincerity to his daughter than he said it to her teacher this morning, and he pulls his lunch out and sets it by McGee's on the jacket. He would do a lot more than give up a meal and play pretend to make his kid happy. She's his entire world and for that, he's happy to disregard his rumbly stomach. He'll go to the vending machines later.

He watches fondly as McGee uses his writer's skills to set the scene, describing to Tali the magical forest in which they're picnicking. She eats it up, hanging on his every word and throwing in suggestions here and there. From the bits Tony can hear as he half-pays attention, working on his computer, there are unicorns in the forest as well as elves and fairies. Tali is, of course, queen of them all.

The frequency of her yawning increases throughout lunch, though, and the need for a nap becomes more and more clear. That's a harder problem to solve than lunch is, though, because the NCIS building wasn't built with sleepy 5-year-olds in mind. It's not as if they haven't all pulled overnighters there, though… Gibbs has been known to sleep on autopsy tables, McGee bent over and snoring on his desk, Tony leaning back in his desk chair, even Kate on the floor behind her desk. None of those napping spots are particularly Tali-friendly, however.

It's Gibbs that comes up with the best idea.

"I don't know if you've ever needed to know about this, Ziver," he says under his breath to his Israeli agent, "but ask DiNozzo about Abby's futon."

Ziva turns an imperious eye on Tony, who sputters and hastens to explain. "Oh my god, Ziva, Abby keeps a futon in her office for when she has to spend the night in her lab. I swear I've just taken naps in there every now and then, you know she and I would never—" he stops talking when she notices her snickering at him. "Aaand you're making fun of me."

"Of course I am," she says, still amused. "You and Abby?" She smirks. "She would eat you alive."

Tony makes a face at her, deigning not to point out that Ziva herself has not eaten him alive, and kneels down next to where his daughter's still parked on McGee's coat, most of this conversation having gone over her head. "I think it's about time for a nap, Tals. You ready to leave your enchanted forest here? I think your picnic partner needs to get back to work, anyway."

"I don't need a nap," she disagrees stubbornly, heavy complaint in her squeaky voice. "I want to keep picnicking with Uncle Geek."

"I really do need to get back to work, Tali," Tim says regretfully. "But I'd love to have another picnic with you on another day!"

"But… but I still don't need a nap! I'm so, so awake, Daddy!" Tony can see in her face the fear that she'll miss something exciting by napping, and his heartstrings are so easily tugged. He can also see the exhaustion on her little face, though, and he knows she needs rest particularly badly today as her body fights off whatever bug she's picked up.

Ziva watches quietly from her desk, wondering how he's going to handle this. He's been known to cave to Tali's desires before, but she really _does _need this nap.

"I know you are, baby girl. But here's the problem… to be a Special Agent, you have to be really good at following orders. That's the only way to make sure you're safe, because people like Papa Boss have to know that if they tell you to do something, you'll do it—even if it's something you don't like. And you want to be a Special Agent, right?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, this is a test you have to pass first, okay? Your mama and I are asking you to go take a quick nap and you have to prove you're a good listener."

He can see the cogs and gears working in Tali's head, trying to find a way out of what she must see as a Catch 22. Aware that this is tough for her and proud of her for thinking it through, he waits patiently. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that just because her problems seem small compared to adult problems that they _are _small problems, but they're not—they're big for her. This is how she learns and grows. "Okay," she finally agrees, her voice very small.

He pulls her into a hug and she sinks into it gratefully. "You're going to make a _wonderful _Special Agent, baby," he whispers in her ear and he can feel her smile. His heart is _so _full of love for her that it aches sometimes, and this is one of those times.

"Thank you, Daddy. Can you and Mama read me a story before I go to sleep?"

He starts to say no, aware that they _do _have a case demanding their attention, but to his surprise, he can see Gibbs nod from over Tali's head. He's being shockingly lenient today—maybe they should keep a kid in the office full time if only to mellow the boss. "Of course we will, darlin'. But only if we go right now, okay? Papa Boss is being really nice by letting us take work time to do this and we need to try to be respectful of that."

She clings onto him when he tries to pull away, so he gently picks her up and stands with her in his arms. Her head falls to his shoulder and she puts her thumb in her mouth as he starts to head toward the elevator, his wife in tow. "Ah, no, _hamuda_, Special Agents do not suck their thumbs. Big girls do not either, yes?" Ziva says softly.

"Sorry, _Ima_," Tali replies sleepily, letting her hand fall. She catches her mother's eye over her father's shoulder, though, and _Ima _is smiling.

"No need to apologize, sweet one. But I know you are very smart and you can do anything that you set your mind to. If you wish to, you can stop thumb sucking altogether. Will you try, for me?"

"Yeah. I think I can do it."

"I _know _you can."

They step off the elevator at Abby's lab, and she looks at them in surprise. "You're not Gibbs!"

"No, Abbs, we're not." Tony smiles at Abby as he bounces Tali, trying to coax her toward sleeping.

"Tali!" Abby's voice is full of shocked delight—news travels fast around here, but clearly, she missed the memo on the little agent-in-training's presence at NCIS today.

Tali looks up at the sound of her name. "Dodabbs!" she cries, squirming in Tony's arms to be let down. Sighing, he sets her on the ground so she can run at Abby, absolutely delighted to see one of her favorite people. Tony knows that all progress they've made toward sleepiness is now lost, but Abby and Tali share a bond that he just doesn't have enough authority to break. He couldn't keep them apart if he tried.

"Dodabbs, I'm training to be a Special Agent today!" Tali shares excitedly, using the name she created for her beloved forensic scientist—the Hebrew word for aunt, _doda_, combined with the Abbs nickname that practically everyone uses.

"I knew it was only a matter of time! I mean, you _are _the daughter of the great Ziva David and Tony DiNozzo, aren't you?"

Tali turns around to beam at her parents—despite being sick, she's in a good mood today. This is the best day _ever_! "Yes!" she cries. Her mother and father are super great, Dodabbs is right!

"And this Special Agent-in-training would like to take a nap on your futon, if that is alright," Ziva interjects gently, knowing Abby and Tali will happily chat the afternoon away without noticing any time passing.

"Of course!" Abby leads them to it, her hand in Tali's. "How long will she nap?" she asks Ziva.

"I would like to see her sleep for at least 45 minutes," the girl's mother answers.

"Okay! I'll call you when she's up. And if she tries to get up too soon, I'll put her back down," Abby assures them.

"Thank you, Abby," Ziva says at the same time Tony says "Thanks, Abbs."

"This afternoon, you and I have some catching up to do," Abby tells Tali. She gives the little girl a high five before departing back to her lab, leaving the small family alone to prepare for naptime.

"Alright, baby girl, you know the drill," Tony says, gentle but firm, and Tali sighs and complies. She crawls into the futon and gets comfortable so they can tuck her in. Once she's properly tucked, they settle on the ground next to the futon. Tony feels the strong urge to get back to work, wanting back in Gibbs' good books, so he tries to get out of story time. "What if Mama just reads to you this time?"

"No! You promised!" Tali immediately protests, her lip trembling. Knowing she's both sick and overly tired and tears may be imminent, Tony immediately backs down.

"Okay, okay, sorry, love. You're right, I promised." That had been a rash thing to try, and he rushes to move past it. "Which story do you want today?"

"Princess and the pea," Tali answers promptly, having thought about it since storytime was first mentioned fifteen minutes ago.

Tony and Ziva exchange smiles—this has _always _been Tali's favorite for reasons they can't quite discern, and they tell it to her at least once a week. That means they're good at it, though, and well practiced at doing the silly voices Tali likes.

They launch into it, much to Tali's delight, and by the end of the story, she's half-asleep. She's smiling, though, and she won't fight them on naptime now. This whole day has not gone according to plan, but Tony finds himself glad that for once, they get to have a sweet family moment in the middle of the workday. "Sweet dreams, my girl," he says softly to Tali, kissing her forehead and both her cheeks—it earns him a sleepy giggle.

"_Chalomot metukim, ahava shelli_," Ziva adds, saying almost the same thing Tony did but in Hebrew.

They stay next to her, Ziva petting her little face with feather-light touches, until she's asleep. Then they rise together, tiptoeing out of the office to make sure they don't wake the little one up again by leaving.

They say their quick goodbyes and renewed thanks to Abby and head to the elevator. Tony's feeling peaceful, glad to have his daughter close since she's usually far away for most of the day. Ziva, however, is thinking in an entirely different direction.

Once the elevator is going, she presses the emergency switch down, stopping it. Surprised, Tony turns to ask her what she's doing when he notices her expression and his mouth goes dry.

"Do you have any idea how sexy it is?" she asks, her voice sounding unusually fervent.

"How sexy—ah, how sexy what is?" Tony's having a hard time finding his voice.

"You, being a good father. It makes me wish we were not at work right now."

Laughing would not be the right reaction right now, but it's what Tony wants to do—well, that and some other work-inappropriate things. Ziva is so funny and turns him on so much at the same time… how is that even possible? "Glad I've still got it," he says smugly instead, and she laughs.

"When we get home tonight…" She doesn't finish that sentence, but she doesn't need to. Tony's imagination is more than up for the task.

"Now how am I supposed to finish the work day?" he complains, but it's not a _real_ complaint and she knows it.

"I know it will be _hard_, but I have faith in you, my love."

"Ha! That's cruel, Ziva." The look he's giving her says he doesn't mind, though.

"I am sorry," she replies in a tone that says she is not.

She goes to flip the emergency switch back, but before she can, Tony catches her up in a very thorough kiss.

When they make it back to the bullpen to get back to work several minutes later, they're both looking mildly disheveled. Luckily, no one comments.

They make some progress on their homicide while Tali sleeps and when Abby calls Gibbs an hour and a half later, they're hopeful that she'll confirm their new suspicions.

"What d'you got, Abbs?"

"A fingerprint!" The voice on the phone is most certainly not Abby's—in fact, it's the voice of someone who's at least a good thirty years younger. Gibbs uses his considerable investigative experience to deduce that it's probably Tali.

"That fingerprint have a name?" he prods.

"No, silly, fingerprints don't have names."

"Papa Boss wants to know about who the fingerprint belongs to, Tals," Gibbs can hear Abby say in the background.

"Oh! Yeah, what was that man's name again?" Tali asks.

"Samuel McKenzie," comes Abby's patient voice.

"The fingerprint's name is Samuel McKenzie, Papa Boss!"

"That's good work, Special Agent David-DiNozzo. Can you give the phone back to Abby?"

"Dodabbs, it's for you!" There's some rustling and then he's got Abby on the line.

"Good work on the fingerprint there, Abbs. Do I need to send one of your assistant's parents down to pick her up?" he says wryly.

"No, she's good. She's helping, actually. I'm teaching her how to run DNA tests—so if you actually get Samuel McKenzie in here, I'd _love _to get my hands on a strand of his hair! Or a fingernail clipping! Gibbs, if you can get me a fingernail clipping, I'd hug you _so hard_—"

Gibbs cuts her off. "Abbs, you sure she's okay down there? No dangerous chemicals or anything? I know she's smart, but she's only five," he reminds her.

Abby sounds hurt. "Gibbs, you really think I would let anything happen to her?"

He sighs. "It's not _you _I'm worried about. But a five-year-old can get into a lot of trouble in places that are a lot less dangerous than your lab."

"She's fine. You know I'll keep an eye on her." She pauses, and when she speaks again, he can hear a smile in her voice. "What you're _really _worried about is whether I'll poach your next generation of agents. I'm gonna make a forensic scientist out of this girl yet, just you wait. Did you know that studies show girls are pushed away from STEM subjects and toward humanities as early as third grade? I got to get in there while she's still young, Gibbs!"

He laughs. "As long as she's safe, she's welcome to try out any NCIS career while she's here. But I think her parents might have opinions on that."

"What are you doing to my daughter, Abby?" Tony calls suspiciously, overhearing the conversation.

"Tell him she's starting her forensic education, Gibbs," Abby says, and he can tell she's grinning again.

He shakes his head and hangs up. "Abby says she's starting her forensic education," he tells Tony—and Ziva, who's listening closely.

Tony looks quickly at Ziva. "Abby won't show her any photos, Ziva. You know she won't. Abby knows Tali's only five."

"I wish to go make sure," Ziva says stiffly.

"Go, Ziver. Check in with Ducky with you're done. DiNozzo, you're with me. We're going to pick up Samuel McKenzie—Abby and Tali just implicated him with a fingerprint. McGee, I want his financial records and phone records by the time he's in interrogation, and I want his movements over the past 24 hours."

"Got it, boss," McGee says, and he's off. Gibbs sets off to gear up and Tony pauses next to his wife.

"Hey, look at me," he says softly, because she hasn't stopped staring at the space Gibbs left since their boss told her what Abby said. "Abby loves her. She won't show her anything—anything dark, okay? Ziva, look at me."

She finally does, and what he sees breaks his heart. She's wearing the face she wore when he put her on a plane to Israel to bury her father. It's the face of the lost child aching for a father who loves her, the face of the girl who lost everything to Mossad. It's now the face of the mother who is terrified that something will happen to her tiny girl like it happened to Ziva herself when she was small. He hadn't realized just how _much _this is bothering her.

In this moment, it doesn't matter that they're at work where they have a no PDA rule in place. He takes her face between his hands, cradles her, forces her to keep eye contact. "Eli David is dead. You're not in Mossad anymore. Our daughter is never going anywhere _near _it. You're American citizens, okay? I know, I _know _your childhood was rough. I know losing Tali—the first Tali—just crushed you. I know your dad used that to push you into a life full of pain and death. That's all behind you now." She's trembling under his fingers, and he hates that his orders are now taking him away from her while she's hurting. It's not him she needs to see, though, it's Tali.

"She's gonna be just fine. This building is chock full of people who love her—who just _treasure _her, just like we do. Vance doesn't run by fear and intimidation like Eli did. If anything ever happened to us, you know there's a long list of people who would take her in in a heartbeat, and they'd raise her well. These are good people, Ziva. That's who Tali is going to grow up around. She's going to have a happy, _carefree _life and she's going to do whatever she wants with her future, no matter what Abby Sciuto wants her to do."

That draws a smile and Tony is so _freaking _proud of his strong, resilient, tough-as-nails wife. He kisses her on the top of the head and hugs her quickly, knowing he's got to go because Gibbs is probably already out in the car waiting for him. "I love you," he says, letting go of her and gearing up himself. He doesn't give a damn who hears. "Go check on our girl. Hug her and remember how over-the-freakin-top happy we are. Go!" He kisses her cheek one more time as he rushes past her to hurtle down the stairs before Gibbs gets mad enough to slap him into a coma.

It's shaky, but there's a real grin on Ziva's face as she watches her husband go. She follows him down the stairs but does so less frantically, heading for Abby's lab. She knows her emotions are overreacting a little, but all of this has brought up things that's she's been forcing down for a long time. The Ziva that came back from Somalia is not the same Ziva who arrived there… and she's a softer person now. That means that over the years, she's been forced to confront demons that lived under her hard shell before; this is a big one.

It's her deepest fear—in building this new life with this new family, she has so much more to lose now than she ever has. The very center of it is her daughter, a brilliant spot of light and innocence in her life who reminds her so, so much of her namesake, Ziva's baby sister. The original Tali would have loved her little namesake so much—she, like Ziva's daughter, was a happy person, cheerful, warm, and kind to everyone. She was everything Ziva was not allowed to be; Ziva still has one goal in life, and it is that her daughter _will _have those opportunities, and only those opportunities.

It seems that Abby has a similar agenda, because when Ziva enters the lab, she finds her daughter apparently having the time of her life. She's wearing an Abby-sized lab coat, the sleeves rolled many times to accommodate tiny arms. Her face is obscured with safety goggles and she's currently working a micropipette, her gloved hands drowning in latex. "Make sure you're dropping it riiiiiiiiiight on top of the other drop—oh, that's perfect, Tali! Very well done!"

"What are we working on?" Ziva asks, and both Tali and Abby look up at her, beaming.

"_Ima_! We're doing BNA testing."

"DNA," Abby gently corrects.

"Oh! Dodabbs is teaching me DNA testing." She's clearly _so _excited to show Ziva what she's learned that Ziva feels a little bad about her earlier worries. Of course Abby wouldn't do anything to ruin Tali's innocence. It would never happen.

"What did you learn?"

"It's how Dodabbs can tell which bad guy is the right bad guy!" Tali shares excitedly. "She can do it with lots of icky body things, like hair and blood."

"And which 'icky body thing' are you working with now, _hamuda_?"

"This is blood!"

"How did you get this sample, Abby?" Ziva covers Tali's little ears when she asks the question, her tone slightly hard. Abby had better not have made the mistake of taking the 5-year-old down to autopsy and showing her the homicide victim.

"Ducky sent it up with Palmer," Abby answers lightly, not taking offense to being asked. "Tali has not left this lab except to go to the bathroom, and she was supervised right up until she got into the stall. She's fine, Ziva, I promise."

"Thank you, Abby." She means it so deeply, and she knows her friend understands that. Trying to be supportive, she turns around to block her actions from her daughter's view. She then pulls out her pocket knife and makes a minuscule cut on one of her fingers, just enough to draw a little blood. She steals a fresh microscope slide and smears her blood on it before passing it over to Abby. "Here is a fresh sample for you to test. You can see if it is a match to the sample from Ducky or not."

"Whoa! Whose blood is that?" Tali asks with great interest, getting the sample set up with Abby's help.

"Can you not figure that out?" Ziva teases, watching as Abby directs Tali to carefully place droplets of solution on the blood smear.

"Um…" Tali doesn't know the answer, and she looks at Abby for help.

"With this quick test, we can determine who it _doesn't _belong to based on blood type," she reminds the little one, who lights up again. "We have to wait for one of our machines to give us an answer for a definitive DNA match."

"Oh, yeah! If this one has a different blood type, it'll… clot?" She tries the word out uncertainly, and Abby nods encouragingly. "It'll clot!"

"Well, Tals, is it a match to our suspect's sample?" Abby prompts.

Tali studies it. "I don't… think so?"

Abby glances at it for confirmation. "And you would be absolutely correct, Special Agent David-DiNozzo!"

"I did it! _Ima_, I did it!" Tali is thrilled, making Ziva and Abby laugh.

"You did good work," Ziva praises her offspring, smiling. "On another note, however, I am going down to autopsy from here. Do you wish to go see Papa Duck? I do not think you are old enough to see an autopsy, but I do think you can sit at Ducky's desk if he does not have anything sensitive out. If you are set on learning about NCIS careers today, Papa Duck can teach you about profiling."

"Yes! I want to go down to see him!"

"Okay. I want you to stay by the elevator until I call you in, though, Tali."

"Okay, _Ima_. Bye, Dodabbs!"

"Bye, Tals. You know you're always welcome here, and I can always use your help. I'm proud of the work you did today."

"Thank you!" Tali chirps, feeling very grown up. She takes _Ima_'s hand when it's offered and they go to the elevator.

"It seems that everyone is glad you are here today," Ziva tells her daughter. She's speaking in Hebrew again now that it's just the two of them.

"Can I come every day?"

Ziva laughs. "You do have to go back to school as soon as you are no longer sick, my love_._"

"Darn it. This is more fun than school!"

Still chuckling, Ziva affectionately runs a hand through her daughter's hair. "I am glad you are enjoying yourself. Someday you may apply to work here, if you wish."

"Is every adult job fun?" Tali wonders aloud.

"Ha! No, not every job is fun, and our jobs here are often not fun, either."

"I don't believe you."

"You are free to believe or not believe, love."

The arrive down at autopsy level and Ziva parks her daughter right outside the elevator. "I will be back in just a moment to retrieve you," she promises, and goes on into autopsy. Ducky is in the middle of putting a body away in cold storage, so the timing is good. "Hello, Ziva," he says with a welcoming smile.

"Hello, Ducky. If you have time for it, I have brought you a visitor," she shares in English, smiling back at him.

"Oh, have you brought Tali down? I had heard that she was here, but I'd rather thought I would have to go up to the squad room to see her. I was going to before the end of the day—you know I would not turn down a visit from my adoptive granddaughter."

"Excellent. I will go get her, then."

"I'm surprised you would bring her down here," he says to her retreating back, and she turns around. There's sympathy on his face. "I know you don't want her to be exposed to the cruel life your father exposed _you_ to at a young age."

"I only brought her with the caveat that she could not come in while a body was out," she admits. "It scares me to think of her losing her innocence, Ducky."

"She won't. And all of that worrying just means that you're a good parent," Ducky says kindly, shrewdly addressing another one of her concerns. She often thinks about whether her past makes her too anxious as a mother, and she wonders if that is to the detriment of her child.

"Thank you, Ducky." It's soft but deeply meant.

"Go on and get her, then. I relish spending time with her. She listens to my stories, you know. Adults so rarely give me the courtesy."

Ziva laughs, replying as she walks toward the sliding doors. "She has an unending curiosity, it is true. I know she loves spending time with you, as well." The sliding doors open. "You can come in, Tali."

"Hi, Papa Duck!" Tali needs no second invitation, bounding in exuberantly to give her "grandfather" a big hug.

"Talia, you've grown! You were knee-high to a grasshopper the last time I saw you, and that was only about a month ago. You're shooting up!"

"Daddy says it's because I eat my veggies, but Dodabbs says it's genewics." She's proud of her new vocabulary.

Ducky laughs at that. "Yes, my dear, _genetics_—Abigail does tend to love a good scientific explanation. I hear you were quite a helper to her today."

"Yeah, it was fun!"

"You are a _very _smart young lady," he compliments in reply. "Whether you're someday a field agent, a forensic scientist, or something different entirely, I know you will excel at it."

"What does excel mean?"

"It means you will do a wonderfully good job, just like you did for Abby today." He gives her a fond look.

"Oh! Thanks, Papa Duck. Whatcha working on?"

Ducky glances up at Ziva. "Are you alright with her seeing x-rays?"

Ziva considers this for a moment and nods. "Nothing too violent, though, please."

"I'll show you what I was working on," Ducky says. He nods at Ziva and goes to his desk, hunting for the transparent sheets he has in mind. It only takes him a minute to find them and he leads them to the back of the room where the light boards are. He puts up a head x-ray first. "Do you know what this is?" he asks Tali.

"It kinda looks like a face?"

"Very good! This is what you would look like if you were just bones. You have a skull just like this hiding under _your_ face!" He walks her through identifying eyes, noses, and other facial landmarks. She drinks it in, absolutely fascinated.

Ziva sees that Tali is in good hands and decides to leave them to it. "Ducky, can I leave her with you for now?"

"Of course, Ziva! My young assistant and I have work to do!"

"Thank you. And because I know Gibbs will ask, do you have a cause of death for Petty Officer Matheson?"

"Blunt force trauma, as we suspected."

"What's blunt force trauma?" Tali asks.

"That, my dear, you are _definitely_ too young to learn about," Ducky says firmly.

Tali opens her mouth, but Ziva beats her to it. "Do not argue with Papa Duck, Tali. He is right."

Tali frowns but concedes.

"I will be upstairs if either of you need me." Ziva kisses Tali's forehead and heads for the elevator.

Tali gets sick again while she's with Ducky in autopsy, but he's more than up to the job of dealing with it—bodily fluids don't bother him in the slightest. Tali finishes out the day down on the bottom floor with him while her parents solve the case upstairs—a particularly brilliant insight from her mother leads them to the answers they've been after.

Her parents come down together to autopsy to pick her up.

"Hey, Daddy! _Shalom_, _Ima_!" She's excited to see them, making them both smile.

"Hey, baby girl." Tony opens his arms and Tali races into them as he swings her up into a hug. They rarely greet one another any other way, and it makes Ziva's heart ache in a bittersweet way to think of the day when Tali will have grown too big for them to do that. "Did you have fun with Papa Duck?"

"Yes! I learned about _bones_, Daddy! Did you know we have _so many _in our bodies?"

He pretends to think about this. "What, like 5 or 6 bones?"

She giggles. "No, like 200 bones! Even more!"

"Wow, that's a lot o' bones!" Tony exclaims, feigning surprise. For the 42nd time today, he thinks about how goddamn cute she is.

"It sure is," Ziva chips in. "Tali, do you want to ride home with me or with _Abba _today? You get to choose this time."

"We can't all go home together?" Her little face falls.

"Remember, you and I came from school today," Tony reminds her. "Mama had to drive to work without us."

"Oh, yeah…" she looks back and forth between them, clearly torn. "Well, Daddy already rided with me today and _Ima_ didn't. I think I'll go with _Ima_."

"Sounds logical to me," Tony praises. "Well, I'll see you ladies at home in a few minutes." He forgoes the no-PDA rule (that doesn't apply to Tali, anyway) for the third time today and kisses the foreheads of both his wife and his daughter. It's been a tough day for each of them. "Ziva, be careful with your driving," he warns, smirking, as he leaves.

"My driving is fine!" she calls toward his retreating back. It's the same argument they've been having for years, and it has long since become something that's playful and affectionate, not goading. She's rewarded with a bark of Tony's laughter.

It takes her and Tali a little longer to gather their things and get ready to go, but soon they're back in the squad room, heading for the elevator. Gibbs catches up with them and wordlessly slides into the car after Tali. Ziva raises her eyebrows but doesn't ask, and she's unsurprised when he hits the emergency switch again.

Tali's never seen this move, and she's understandably alarmed when the car jolts slightly as it slides to a stop. "Is the elevator broken?" she asks her mother in Hebrew—sometimes, when emotional or startled, she forgets to switch out of their "secret language", as they like to call it.

"No, it is merely stopped between floors. Papa Boss did it because he wishes to talk to us without an audience." Ziva answers the question in English for Gibbs' sake.

"What's an audience?" The girl remembers to ask in English this time, too, following her mother's lead.

"Means people who listen to things they shouldn't," Gibbs tells her gruffly.

Ziva has to hide a smile. "So what do you wish to say, Gibbs?"

"Say? Not much. Just wanted to reward an honorary team member for a job well done today."

Tali is still trying to work out what honorary means when her mother leans in for a stage whisper. "I believe he is talking about you, _hamuda_."

"Me?" Tali's eyes flash from Papa Boss to _Ima_ and back.

"Yeah, you," Gibbs confirms, wearing an affectionate half-smile now. "Do you think you've earned a prize today, Tals?"

"Yes!"

"Alright, then." Gibbs pulls out an NCIS hat he's been hiding inside his jacket and presents it to the 5-year-old.

She gapes at it for a second, floored by this unexpected act of generosity, and then puts it on as soon as she has her bearings again. It's much too large for her and it slips down over her eyes and ears, but she's thrilled to be wearing it. "Thank you, Papa Boss!" she squeaks, enthralled, and launches at him with a big hug; he laughs and hugs her back.

Ziva realizes with an unexpected rush of emotions that it's the hat with two 9-mm bullet holes in it. The hat was originally Tony's, some 15-odd years ago. It became hers when she started at NCIS after that, and after a while, she opted for a newer one in better shape. It never occurred to her that Gibbs would have kept the old thing after all these years. While she wouldn't normally want her daughter at this young age to own something that's so associated with guns and bullets, this hat is the exception to the rule. It's an item full of sentimental value, a sweet reminder of the long and twisted path that led to Tali's creation. It's only right that she should have it.

Tali wears the hat all the way home and trips over her feet on the way into the house; she nearly faceplants, but Ziva, used to dealing with her occasionally clumsy offspring, catches her deftly by the back of her shirt and tugs her gently upright again.

Tony's already part of the way through cooking dinner when they get inside, and he greets them both individually with their own kinds of kisses. They eat and bathe Tali quickly, rushing her to bed early tonight in the hopes that some extra sleep will do her good on fighting off her stomach bug. She makes them both laugh by requesting the princess and the pea for storytime again tonight, but they oblige her. She's already out by the time the story ends.

Back downstairs a few minutes later, each with a beer in hand, Tony and Ziva settle on the couch to watch a non-kid-friendly movie for once… a guilty pleasure any time Tali is put down early. It doesn't take long for Ziva to stretch out on the couch, pillowing her head on her husband's thigh; she makes a noise of deep contentment when he starts absentmindedly running his fingers through her hair. "Sweet cheeks?" he asks after a few minutes, and she smiles at the stupid old nickname.

"Yes?"

"Is that the same hat that—"

"That you shot holes in with your SIG at the shooting range? Yes."

"Where'd she get it?"

"From Gibbs."

He looks away from the TV at that, surprised. "Who'd've thought Gibbs would hold onto it?"

"I was surprised, as well," Ziva agrees.

"Huh." His eyes go back to the screen and he resumes his soft petting of her hair. "Suppose the ol' boss has a sentimental bone or two in him, after all."

"Perhaps he does, but I believe that he would deny it if asked."

"Ha, you're probably right."

They lapse into silence for a few minutes before Tony speaks up again. "And what you said on the elevator, about when we get home…"

Ziva chuckles. "I was wondering how long it would take you to remember that."

"You up for a little adult activity? I somehow feel like we've been kids playing cops and robbers all day with Tali hanging around."

"Ha, I will consider it," she answers.

He gives her a wounded look and she laughs, feeling much more cheerful than she felt earlier. Tony's good for that. "Okay, okay, yes, but we have to be quiet about it. I do not want Tali waking up tonight."

"I can work with quiet, but can you?" he teases.

"I can try," she answers, and try they do.


End file.
